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Home Weatherization Visit

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Secretary Steven Chu visits a home that is in the process of being weatherized in Columbus, OH, along with Ohio Governor Ted Strickland and Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman. They discuss the benefits of weatherization and how funding from the recovery act is having a direct impact in communities across America.

SECRETARY OF ENERGY STEVEN CHU: In this weatherization program, we are – we’re investing money that – so we can hire local people to do the work. You save the money. That money then goes back into the economy locally. And oh, by the way, you’re not – using less energy, so that in the end is going to help save the world as well.

So it’s a three-fer. And the – it warms my heart, for many reasons. One of the reasons – first, you know, we hope that your home will be much more comfortable and much more enjoyable and your life much improved. But it also – I really appreciate when I meet people who are doing the work. They’re deeply knowledgeable. They know what they’re doing. They care. And they know how they’re affecting lives. And that’s really great stuff.

The thing is, we have to make plans of not only doing the homes that we can do with this money, but actually to really get it so that for the next 10 or 20 or 30 years, we take every American home and turn it into much more comfortable home.

People do not realize that you can make these improvements at far less than the cost of what you might have thought. They constantly overestimate the cost of doing this. They constantly underestimate how much money you can save. Literally, if you can imagine $20 bills being burned up and going up your chimney, to $20 bills in your wallet that you can spend on anything you want, pick – keep that in mind.

So I encourage all of you listening and all of you out there who might be listening to look at whether you can do these things yourself. I mean, it’s a real goldmine. And it furthers the president’s agenda of not only making the country use its resources more wisely but in the end, you know, there’s this climate change issue, there’s industrial competitiveness, there are all these things; and weatherization, energy efficiency is the best thing we can do.

GOVERNOR TED STRICKLAND (D-OH): The president is showing leadership in time of great need, and this program will help individuals. It will help communities. It will create jobs. And we are very thankful to the president and –

MAYOR MICHAEL COLEMAN (Columbus, OH): This is a big boost to the economy, and it’s a big savings to our residents. It’s going to help our city come back.